Selections. [no. 4, new series, 



Before leaving the subject of sugar I must be allowed to call at- 

 tention to the factory at Aska which is now the centre of a traffic 

 on which the prosperity of a great portion of the Ganjam District 

 depends. The variety of trades and manufactures to which it has 

 given rise can only be understood by following the processes in the 

 factory. But its effect may be in some degree estimated by a con- 

 sideration of the facts, that the consumption of fuel is about 24,000 

 Rupees worth annually and 0,000 tons of Goor will, it is expected, 

 be this season purchased from the ryots at a very remunerative 

 rate. If this supply is obtained, more than 3,000 tons of sugar 

 will be shipped, and the profits from the works will be satisfactory. 

 But whether working to the profit anticipated or to loss such as it 

 has hitherto had, it has equally a claim to every help from the Go- 

 vernment. The enterprizing owners have run a great risk, and 

 several have met with a loss not liking to go on, in the venture. 

 A capital has been sunk which would have made no insignificant 

 appearance in our list of Public Works ; very few of which indeed 

 approach the Aska factory in cost, and it is more directly beneficial 

 than almost any thing that has been done by the Engineer Depart- 

 ment, excepting only our largest irrigation works, from the sum it 

 annually circulates in the District and which will this season near- 

 ly equal in amount half the Revenue of the Collectorate. I am 

 induced to offer these remarks because I have met with a feeling 

 here and there that such great works might very well be left to 

 themselves. There is a very common notion that great manufac- 

 turers make great profits, and can fight their own battle and more- 

 over that they have rather a too determined way of asking for what 

 they want. This may be true in some cases, and I hope it may 

 be so with the Aska manufacturers. Their success will be a most 

 valuable example ; they will deserve all they earn, and if their de- 

 mands are always as reasonable as they now are, they cannot be 

 too resolute in making them. What they most want are, encour- 

 agement to the growth of sugar, and such fine roads elsewhere as 

 that which has been opened to their benefit, between Aska and the 

 port of Moonsoorcottah.— Observations made on a tour in Ganjam, 

 in March and April 1856. — By Lieut, Col. F. C. Cotton. 



